The Masterpiece Society
'' |image= |series= |production=40275-213 |producer(s)= |story=James Kahn Adam Belanoff |script=Adam Belanoff Michael Piller |director=Winrich Kolbe |imdbref=tt0708806d |guests=Ron Canada as Martin Benbeck, John Snyder as Aaron Conor, Dey Young as Hannah Bates, Sheila Franklin as Felton |previous_production=Violations |next_production=Conundrum |episode=TNG S05E13 |airdate=10 February 1992 |previous_release=Violations |next_release=Conundrum |story_date(s)=Stardate 45470.1 |previous_story=Violations |next_story=Conundrum }} =Summary= While monitoring the progress of a neutron star's core fragment, the Enterprise crew is shocked to learn of an unknown human colony on Moab IV, now threatened by the fragment – and even more surprised when the residents refuse to relocate. Their leader, Aaron Conor, explains that the colony has been genetically planned and engineered to be the perfect society. Any contact with outsiders is bound to be corrupting. Conor reluctantly agrees to let Enterprise officers beam down to discuss the danger posed by the fragment. The colony's chief scientist, Hannah Bates, begins working with La Forge to develop a tractor beam that will be powerful enough to deflect the core fragment. When Bates must beam aboard the Enterprise with Geordi to continue her research, Troi stays behind, fascinated by the soft spoken Conor. After spending the night with him, she berates herself for allowing the brief affair, knowing her Betazoid DNA would not be welcome in the genetically closed colony. Ironically it is the VISOR of an 'imperfect' blind man that inspires the needed tractor beam enhancement, but to install the equipment necessary to deflect the fragment, fifty more people from the Enterprise will have to beam down. Conor reluctantly agrees to their presence. The engineer's plan works, and the fragment is diverted, but the colony's problems are far from over. Hannah, after a taste of the outside world, decides to leave. She fakes an alarm to force evacuation, but Geordi sees through her ruse. Yet, despite desperate pleas from Conor and other colonists, Bates and twenty three others decide to leave. Conor decides he can't stop them, despite the irreparable damage their departure will cause. Picard is left to wonder which ultimately posed the greater threat to the colony – the core fragment or his ship's 'help'. =Errors and Explanations= # La Forge struggling to keep his eyelids open, despite being blind from birth. Perhaps the input from the VISOR is reduced when the person's eyelid's close. Nit Central # Sophie Hawksworth on Wednesday, June 27, 2001 - 4:07 pm: Geordi and friend spend 3 days vastly increasing the power of the tractor beam, after which it is only just strong enough to move the stellar core fragment. This is nonsense. In the frictionless vacuum of space, you can move an object just as easily by applying a small force for a long time, as by applying a large force for a small time. In other words, the tractor beam was strong enough to start with. They just needed to run it for 4 times as long. (Or if this strains the ship's systems, run it at 50% for 8 times as long.) The apparent timeline for this episode suggests that there was plenty of time to do this. Indeed, as Spock pointed out in The Paradise Syndrome the closer the core fragment gets to the planet, the more difficult it is to move. The 3 days they spent fiddling with the tractor beam actually made the task of shifting the core fragment harder. It would have made more sense to say that the core fragment was made of neutronium, and that an unmodified tractor beam couldn't lock on to neutronium. # LUIGI NOVI on Sunday, July 01, 2001 - 1:03 am: Is Moab IV located in Federation space? I’m just wondering, because the DS9 episode Doctor Bashir, I Presume established that genetic engineering, for any purpose other than correcting prenatal deformities or healing severe injuries, is banned in the Federation. The colony may have been established on a world on the edge of Federation territory. # LUIGI NOVI on Tuesday, July 03, 2001 - 8:55 pm: Isn't the mass of the Enterprise much less than the mass of stellar core fragment? If so, then how can a low mass object push a heavy mass object around? The same way an ant can push something that weighs many times more that it does! # One of the ideas that Russian scientists have come up with to deal with comets and asteroids on a collision course with the Earth is to focus a laser on the side of the object, vaporize a part of it and the force of the gaseous matter leaving the object will alter the object's course. I wonder if such a plan would work with a stellar core fragment? Probably not – the energy from the laser beam would most likely either pass straight through or get absorbed. # Will on Thursday, March 14, 2002 - 10:32 am: Once again, despite a massive ship like the Enterprise-D, which probably has about 10,000 rooms, and a whole bunch of labs...Geordi insists on using the electric socket plug in Engineering, 15 feet away from the warp core to fiddle with another of his experimental toys. Can't this guy work in a lab somewhere on deck 47 ( :) )? Why so near the volatile heart of ship's power? He probably wanted to minimise the potential for power disruption. # Freya Lorelei on Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 7:22 pm: One thing I just didn't get was the idea that every single aspect of these peoples' lives was completely predictable and nothing taken to chance. Haven't they ever heard of "nature"? Don't these people have pets of any sort? Animals certainly don't follow predictable behaviour patterns. And even if they don't keep captive animals, what about wild animals? These people obviously have living organisms of some sort on their planet, as we see plants in abundance. But ok. Let's say they take every precaution, and raise all food in a completely artificial environment. You still have problems with the weather! Don't these people ever experience natural disasters? Hailstorms, tornadoes, even unusual amounts of rain? There's a reason why such things are called "acts of God": they're completely uncontrollable. Their perfect little micro-managed society of eight generations is a complete impossibility. Duke of Earl Grey on Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 9:38 pm: Why should they have hailstorms, tornadoes, or unusual amounts of rain? They live in a bubble dome! # John A. Lang on Thursday, January 09, 2003 - 8:17 pm: DUMB SCENE: The first beam down sequence...the Away Team beamed down in the center of the biosphere...right in front of everybody. These people DO NOT have warp drive, they DO NOT have transporters, isn't beaming down in front of these people a violation of the Prime Directive? KAM on Friday, January 10, 2003 - 5:14 am: As Riker says at the end, they're Human. The Prime Directive doesn't apply.SENIRAM Besides, it may not be possible to enter the colony from outside. # BF (Titanmanforever) on Wednesday, January 31, 2007 - 5:40 pm: I don't know that anyone has drawn a parallel to this yet, but wouldn't the members of the colony that left on the Enterprise all be ineligible for Starfleet jobs since they were created through genetic engineering? Perhaps they were granted a special dispensation to work in the civilian sector. Category:Episodes Category:The Next Generation